News Beach volleyball 10/10/2014 Czechs Bonnerova/Hermannova triumph over top seeds Juliana/Antonelli at Xiamen Open Xiamen, China, October 10, 2014 – Martina Bonnerová andBarbora Hermannová from Czech Republic upset top seeds Juliana Felisberta Silvaand Maria Antonelli from Brazil winning 2-0(21-13, 27-25) in their final pool match at the $150,000 2014 FIVB BeachVolleyball World Tour Xiamen Open. This is the third visit to China for the2014 FIVB World Tour and the second consecutive year the tour has been toXiamen.Bonnerova/Hermannova began the day sitting just behind Juliana/Antonelliin Pool B with two wins each. The teams then faced each other in the pooldecider with both pairs eager to win and earn a bye into round two knock-outs.As the first set progressed the match began to attractthe attention of more and more spectators on Xiamen’s GuanyinshanGold Beach as the Czech pair began to take control. Under hot andwindy conditions Bonnerova/Hermannova kept their cool to confidently take thefirst set.Juliana/Antonelli had taken their time to find theirgame in the previous days’ pool match against Spain’s Angela Lobato Herrero andPaula Soria Gutiérrez, losing the first set 21-23, before pulling back thematch to win 2-1 (21-23, 21-14,15-13).The Brazilians showed a similar trend in the second setutilising their power and experience to give the Czech girls a hard time. Butfor each powerful serve and athletic attack, Bonnerova/Hermannova gave exactlythe same back, taking the win 2-0(21-13, 27-25) and earning the rest of the day off.“We are really feeling great because we have alreadyplayed two times with them, both times with tie break and quite close. Now wewanted to finally win and in this big wind our serve worked against them so itwas great,” said Hermannová.“It feels really great to win against such a good team,number one of this tournament so it’s amazing for us that we made it,” said Bonnerová.Bonnerova/Hermannova just missed out on the final fourat the FIVB Anapa Open this year in their best ever World Tour performance.“We said that we wanted to be top ten of better in thistournament so we will for sure try to win again and make some good success andresults,” said Bonnerová The wind has proved a challenge to all the competitorsin Xiamen and each team has found their own way to adapt.“We played mostly just close and not too high settingbecause in this wind it’s not possible. The most important is the serving as it’sreally hard to receive it when someone has a good service,” said Bonnerová.“In Czech there is no wind so we had to change our gametotally,” said Hermannová.Juliana/Antonelli also progress through to round twoknock-outs on Saturday after beating China’s Lin Meimei and Tang Ningya inround one, 2-0 (21-17, 21-17). Gallay/Klugaim for first ever final fourArgentina’s Ana Gallay and Georgina Klug are in fineform in Xiamen earning three straight wins and topping Pool C to enter directly into round two. Their third pool victory came against Russia’s YuliaAbalakina and Ksenia Dabizha in the heat of day. After closing the first set 21-17, Gallay/Klug began tolet the second set slip as Abalakina/Dabizha gave little away. The Argentinianswere visibly more determined in the third set and ended the match quickly 2-1(21-17, 16-21, 15-6).“In the third set we came in with all our energy andfocus to win and being first in the pool and thought only about this,” said Gallay.“It was hot and windy and the Russian team playedreally well. We are really happy because it was a tough match and we had areally hard second set. It was really important for us to finish first in the poolin this tournament so we did it and we are really proud of ourselves,” saidKlug.Gallay/Klug have finished ninth in four FIVB GrandSlams in 2014. They finished fifth in the Puerto Vallarta Open and FuzhouOpen this year, but have yet to make it to an FIVB final four. The Argentinianshave also posted some of their best results in Asia.“We only want to win tomorrow, we don’t care who wehave to play against but we really want to win and we are dreaming of asemifinal this tournament. We have neverbeen in a semifinal on the world tour so we are really dreaming of a medal,”said Klug.“We feel like we always talk about that since westarted last year. We had good results playing in China and also in Thailandlast year so Asia is good for us,” said Klug.The FIVB XiamenOpen women’s medals winners will be decided on Sunday.With the Grand Slam portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tournow complete, the tour continues after Xiamen with four double-gender FIVB Openevents along with one men-only FIVB Open tournament. The tour will travel to Argentina for theFIVB Parana Open (Oct. 28-Nov. 2) before heading to Doha for the men-only FIVBQatar Open (Nov. 4-8). India will then host the double-gender FIVB Vizag Open(Nov. 25-30), before the 2014 calendar comes to a close in South Africa withthe double-gender FIVB Mangaung Open (Dec. 9-14). Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News